Hard to change – Romanians remain loyal to cash payments

Cash remains the most used method of payment in Romania, considering that, here, 80 percent of the payments made by small and medium enterprises are cash-based, unlike Poland, where only 29 percent of the SMEs use cash for payments. In the same time, 23 percent choose the business card and almost half of them opt for other types of electronic transactions, according to a study run by Visa Europe on SMEs’ payment behavior.

The survey also shows that more than 50 percent of the SMEs have difficulties in managing their cash flow, and almost 60 percent are facing real challenges to keep on top of their finances.

47 percent of Romania’s SMEs owners are constantly preoccupied with their company’s financial situation and would like to have total control on their business, although they do not feel ready to make complex financial decisions.

“(…) Unfortunately, only 3 out of every 10 SMEs declare to have a business card and almost one third of the managers use their personal cards for company related payments, which makes accounting very difficult and puts pressure on their personal income” Catalin Cretu, Visa Europe Subregional Manager for Romania, Croatia and Slovenia said in a press release.

According to VISA study, entrepreneurs and SME managers are very careful when it comes to bank loans and they would rather work with their own resources. Also, every other Romanian entrepreneur is very careful when making financial decisions or setting a complex strategy for their cash flow – the same as in Germany (46 percent), but below France (55 percent) or Spain (60 percent).

Two thirds of the SMEs only have one bank account, and 70 percent of the companies that have one or more bank accounts choose to work with only one bank. In general, they mainly interact with the bank for depositing and withdrawing cash, however online banking operations are on the rise, as only one third of the SMEs use these services for payments or bank transfers.